Competitive Intelligence

When researching competition, choose the ones that most closely resemble your own firm in terms of size, location and products/services. If it helps, think like your customers -- who would they be comparing you to?

Prepare a chart that compares your company to your competitors along the following dimensions:

Products

List products, services and features

Pricing

Describe pricing, average fees, average sale, markups, etc.

Strengths

Compare competencies,location, support, productbreadth, depth, etc.

Weaknesses

Compare competencies,location, support, productbreadth, etc.

Strategy

How are you different,take advantage of opportunities, competencies, etc.

Shortcuts

Research Warning

No matter what information you're looking for, always evaluate the legitimacy of the source, cross-reference the data with multiple sources and consider the impact of what you're using or sharing. This is especially true when performing research about individuals, financial data, and anything else upon which you're going to base critical decisions.